It will be a test of character and battle for supremacy when Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat lions, two of the most impressive teams of IPl 9, lock horns against each other at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground here on Wednesday.
Barring one bad day in office, both Daredevils and Gujarat lions had a near perfect campaign so far in the tournament.
While new outfit Gujarat lions are lying in the second spot in the eight-team standings with eight points from five matches, the Daredevils are a place below in the third position with six points from four games.
After the loss to Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets in their tournament opener, the Daredevils bounced back strongly riding on collective efforts to comfortably beat Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in their next three games to surge ahead in the points table.
Gujarat lions too had a dream debut in their opening IPl season, having won three consecutive games — against Kings XI Punjab, Rising Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians — before slumping to their only loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Suresh Raina-led side, however, came back strongly to get the better of a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last game.
And come Wednesday, both Daredevils and Gujarat lions will be desperate to upstage each other to prove their supremacy.
In the game against RCB, South African Quinton de Kock struck the first century of IPl 9 scoring 108 off just 51 deliveries to guide Daredevils to a seven wicket win while chasing an imposing 192-run target.
Against defending champions Mumbai Indians, it was the turn of young Sanju Samson (60) and JP Duminy (49 not out) who rose to the occasion to take the Zaheer Khan led side to 164 for four, a total which they defended to win by 10 runs.
Daredevils coach Rahul Dravid would be happy with the fact that besides De Kock, other batsmen in Karun Nair, Samson, Duminy also returned among runs.
On the bowling front, Daredevils have experience with captain Zaheer leading the pack and showing that there is still plenty left in his armoury.
On the other hand, Gujarat lions' has been a fairytale story so far in the tournament.
Come Wednesday, the lions would be eyeing another win which will enable them to upstage Kolkata Knight Riders from top of the points table.
The lions batting revolves around Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum, followed by the likes of Raina, Dwayne Bravo and Dinesh Karthik.